Tuesday, 31 August 2010

No more dreaming spires

There's an interesting piece on university architecture here, which certainly speaks to me: my building could be Wernham Hogg's HQ, a council office or any other building.

It certainly wasn't designed by architects, but by a computer with no regard for education or art, which definitely impacts on the way we conceptualise the educational experience. For example, square rooms with the desks set out facing a notional teacher's place enforces a model of education which implies the one-way transmission of fact and of power, but students and some staff like it because it's familiar and reduces education from a complex and unsettling transaction to a simple and neat affair.

What are the inspiring buildings you'd like to model a university on? Interestingly, The Hegemon's New Technology Centre was a case study in the report: it's a fairly successful building, with some flaws, but the assessment is, well, rather dependent on what the university claims for itself. To put it very, very mildly.

1 comment:

Spires shmires. You want the bloody moon on a stick don't you Vole? Groundbreaking architecture costs money that your university does not have.

I quite like your building. I have certainly seen a lot worse buildings in universities and I have definitely worked in at least a dozen far more depressing workplaces (factories, office buildings, warehouses etc). I sometimes wonder if you realise just how lucky you are.

If you have a browse through http://bit.ly/akzFqk you can see who designed your building.

Admittedly that link risks blowing your anonymity, but as you are so fascinatingly bad at hiding your identity I won't lose too much sleep.